08/20/2017

A Story Of Freedom Of Speech And Unpunished Racism That Antifa and Ka-Ka-Stain Both Ignore

I am in a rather buoyant mood. I have had some interesting discussions regarding memorials. As well, in a tightly-contested game, filled with some amazing runs and catches, the New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-3. The Bronx Bombers and the Sox are traditional rivals. Although I am a Yankees (and New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers) fan, I hold no personal animosity towards the Boston Red Sox the way I do towards the Toronto Blow Jobs (who, beautifully, have been getting clobbered by the Chicago Cubs as of late) and to Septic and Hibs FC. Rather, I have a respect for the Red Sox, especially for their indomitable relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel.

That being said, there were other big indabas besides the Yankees' win in the news yesterday. Principal among them was the big indaba in Boston, wherein the Antifa mob vastly outnumbered the Republic of Ka-Ka-Stain mob, yet were reported by the Boston Police Department as hurling missiles (or what the NYPD refers to as "airmail") at BPD Constables, leading the BPD to nick thirty-three. Thirty-two of these thirty-three have been named, but their affiliation, Antifa or Republic of Ka-Ka-Stain, has not been released by the BPD. The only clue to their affiliation is an extremely imperfect one at best. That clue is the names of some of the thirty-two, which suggest, but do not prove, that they were on the Antifa side. No definitiveconclusion can be drawn from this. After all, the names "Odilo Globocnik," "Leonardo Conti," " Erich Zelewski," "Felix Steiner" and "Kurt Meyer" do not sound like German names, yet anyone who is in control of their emotions sufficiently enough to look into, as opposed to instinctively froth at the mouth and rant and rave at the mere mention of, the history of the Third Reich knows that I just mentioned the names of five SS Generals. This means that names do not constitute an entirely reliable indicator of one's poltics.

On a related note, still on this aside, I have argued that the tearing down of Confederate memorials based on the fact that the CSA lost the war sets a precedent for demolishing the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, The Wall, in Washington, D.C. I have been told by knowledgeable sources that this will not be a precedent since The Wall is on Federal land while most Confederate memorials are not. I take that point. However, as far as I know, the Alstead Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in New Hampshire and the Vermont Vietnam Veterans' Memorial are not on Federal land. The soldiers memorialised there, like the soldiers of the Confederacy, were on a side that lost the war. What is more, many, within living memory--Hanoi Jane Fonda, who is still alive, to name one--have argued that the US fought "an imperialistic, unjust war in Vietnam." Will the removal of Confederate memorials on State and municipal grounds lead to the removal of Vietnam Veterans' memorials that are also on State and municipal grounds? And what of the memorials to Canadians who served in the US military in Vietnam located in Québecand Ontario? Canada was not an official combatant in Vietnam, so...

Thankfully, today, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau showed some sense. He condemned the alt-right, but he did not call for the tearing down of Canada's two Vietnam Veterans' Memorials, despite the fact that his father, then-PM Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was as opposed to the Vietnam War as Hanoi Jane and Vo Nguyen Giap.

So, as you can see, race and the past have been central topics of late. However, on the sewer that is social media, only selectedcases of racism have been discussed. This is not unusual in hyper-polarised 2017 where everyone has their pet narrative. This is also not unusual for social media, both whose social justice jihadist and Republic of Ka-Ka-Stain factions focus obsessively on CNN and Breitbart's, which leaves them with only enough energy to respond "Uh...it has something to do with Extra Sensory Perception..." when asked if they know what ESPNis. This is an example of what happens when one allows one's agenda to surpass one's situational awareness.

Now, if the Republic of Ka-Ka-Stain had been on the ball instead of on the YouTubes, they would be whining, not entirely without plausibility, that this fine impinges on Kinsler's freedom of speech. Yes, Kinsler did get a fine for exercising his right to freedom of speech. The thing is, Kinsler is a professionalbaseball player and, as such, is expected to behave like a professional. Furthermore, he got off extremely light. In 1978, Billy Martin said of George Steinbrenner (the billionaire shipping magnate heir and playboy who then owned the Yankees) and Reggie Jackson (Steinbrenner's million dollar miracle who did more sunglasses shopping than hitting the ball in his first season) "One's a born liar, the other one's convicted." Steinbrenner fired Billy the next day. Was what Billy said true? Absolutely and without question. Was Billy right to say this in front of the media so all the world could hear? No. Billy was the manager of the New York Yankees, and, as such, very much a visible face of his brand. Unlike Thunderf00t, his comments were not about something entirely unrelated to his employment. Rather, his comments directly disparaged his boss and one of his subordinates. George Steinbrenner was the majority owner of the Yankees, but he had partners. Billy's comments could potentially have put, or amplified, doubts in these partners' heads as to Steinbrenner's leadership, leaving these partners to dump their shares, and a diminution of the team's franchise.

Both the social justice jihadist and Republic of Ka-Ka-Stain factions of social media selectively purport to be free speech defenders. When it causes an organisation's revenues or share value to plummet, freedom of speech does not look nearly as fashionable in the real world as it does on social media.

I am not convinced that still-standing Confederate statues in and of themselves cause racists to attack minorities anymore than I am convinced that the US Flag caused Robert Bales to deliberately slaughter Afghan civilians. I know, that, despite what is being said in the supercharged air of 2017, Native-Americans, Mexicans and Cubans all fought for the Confederacy, whose Secretary of State was Jewish. Furthermore, I know that Ian Kinsler has a history of racism and that Major League Baseball has had racists in high position well within living memory.

If antifa and the social justice jihadists were genuinely anti-racist, it would seem logical that they spend more time protesting actual, modern-day, still-active racists like Ian Kinsler than they would protesting people who are long dead.